Requited Love
by FeatheredMask
Summary: As Haruka fades from Ene's memory, a bug appears in her programming that might just help her hold onto him.
1. Chapter 1

**Requited Love**

"_Taka-"_

Binary code fed through the CPU in the background, reading onto the screen as a electrical blue. Art, the program forced the resolution to format more pixels than it had ever rendered. Impossible blue eyes scanned data without a 1 or 0 missed.

File names. Folders, video files. Picture .jpegs. Compressed .zip files. Porn of varying vulgarity passed through Ene's scans without issue, occasionally putting a corrupted file in quarantine. Video game files, program files, zombie game save files passed unhindered, once things that would have made her pause and frown.

"_Takane-"_

In the physical sense, she had no mouth to smile with unless her facsimile of a cyber girl was taken into account. She had no mental concept of anything, her coding, although genius, being only a mockery of the human mind.

Blue light filled half the bedroom, flickering with Ene's graphics as a teen slept in a burrow of blankets in the dark half. The computer gave a soft hum, the speakers disconnected and unplugged in a last ditch attempt to keep a surprise early alarm from waking him and his mother. His soft, slow breathing of sleep slipped under the humming in a healthy pattern. It hitched , and shuddered, then returned to the waves of REM sleep. The nightmare wasn't bad tonight.

"_Takane, wake up."_

Ene divided her focus, the scan slowing and basic computer settings running as the RAM memory processed the new audio file that had slipped through the firewall. Extra scans showed nothing malicious, and its origin appeared to have cleared itself from the computer history. She pressed play.

Bump. Bump, bump. _"Takane, it's time to wake up."_

A different result. Curiosity peeked, the computer intelligence had to investigate and learn. The scientific method had four basic steps: Observe. Hypothesis. Test. Revise hypothesis as necessary.

Observation, done. Two plays had two different results, so onto hypothesis: if she played the file again, it would play something entirely different, unless it only had two options. The coding followed different rules than any coding language she could understand, and could not figure out the programming behind it.

Play.

"_Takaneeee."_ Bump. Bump. _"You have to wake up, you know it's going to rain!"_

The name at the beginning struck a chord with her, but the voice remained a puzzle. Ene pulled up the forecast for the day, and found that the day was predicted to have little chance of rain.

"I'm not asleep, and it's not going to rain," Ene replied with a pout, speaking as how she would communicate to Shintaro, seeing as the file had addressed her. With the speakers disconnected, no sound came from the computer, as expected. To her surprise, the file played again, this time with a line of male giggling.

The screen dimmed and Ene's form sunk to the taskbar as if sleeping, the icon for iTunes as her pillow. The hum slowed and stopped, all processes settling into sleep mode for the remainder of the night.

* * *

><p>The solid desk felt cold against her cheek, which had gone numb and no doubt red. Takane clenched her hands, finding a pencil hanging limply from one of them. She moaned, curling her legs under the chair, instinctively curling up for more comfort.<p>

She budged her head, unsticking her eyelids to pry them open at the giggling. She moaned again in annoyance.

"You're awake _now_," Haruka pointed out, and gently shook her shoulder again. "C'mon, I forgot my umbrella. You remembered yours, right?"

"Yeah," Takane yawned, stretching in her chair as she shook herself fully awake. She rubbed her eyes. "I fell asleep? What did I sleep through this time?"

"Sensei left right before you fell asleep. I didn't want to wake you, so I worked on homework." Takane watched as Haruka already had his bag all ready to leave, a shoulder bag for his laptop and a few papers; as for textbooks, he used the ones in classrooms, having a separate set at home. He knelt to get her worksheet, which had apparently slipped off her desk during her nap.

She stuttered out a meek "thanks" as he put it back up to her, peeking at her from his spot on the floor. "Here ya go. It's pretty easy, actually."

Of course he would say that. He was the smart one, even with their conditions turning their minds into difficult fogs to navigate. She huffed and blushed, shoving it into her bag, not bothering to put it in a proper folder. "Get off the floor, then, if you want to share my umbrella."

He smiled sheepishly. "About that..."

He didn't finish his sentence, and Takane pulled a face. "C'mon. You went to all that trouble to wake me up, and you're not even up to walking?"

"But Takaneeeeeeee," he whined. "Walking is haaaaaaard!"

Still, she didn't offer help. "We have to walk to get to the bus!"

Haruka frowned. After a long moment, Takane tensed, sucking in a breath at sudden realization. She scrambled out of her seat, getting down to the floor to help him up to him feet. "Dumbass, you should've just out and told me! Why'd you even get that paper if you knew this would happen!"

"It's- it's not that bad, Takane," Haruka claimed, his leg muscles barely obeying him. He started to slip down again, taking his classmate with him, and he grappled for the desk, trying to use it to help pull himself up. "I like helping you, that's all."

"Idiot." Takane scowled. They managed to get him collapsed in her seat, Haruka rubbing his legs. "You could have left without me."

"I didn't want you to stay here until Sensai found you," he replied quietly. "I thought it was the rain making you tired."

The rain. A light sprinkle beat on the windows in the repurposed lab room, but the heavy dark clouds promised a heavier downpour. Few students still remained at the school, spinning out umbrellas and taking shelter under trees or their bags in desperation. Some didn't care for getting wet at all, not even bothering to pull over the hood of the sweater they'd donned.

Takane sighed, rubbing a hand over her face. "You're the human barometer. I can't tell with that shit."

Haruka's apologetic smile, however, seemed to melt away all the troubles and make her relax. She huffed, her hands on her hips. "You know I'm not waiting for you," she told him sternly, putting up a front.

"_-ne?"_

"I'm up, I'm up!" Haruka stood up to prove that fact to her, and his expression changed to shock in an instant. His arms went up to balance himself, and he breathed a sigh as he managed to avoid falling. "See?" he chirped, grinning. "Just fine. C'mon, before anyone else steals-"

"_Ene? Are you asleep?"_

"-the elevator and we have to wait longer for it."

Takane rolled her eyes, and hefted her bag again over her shoulder. "Let's go, then," she said, heading out ahead of him, and heard his steps follow soon after. They turned on their normal path to the elevator, and both did a double take at hearing the ping before they even got there.

"Hey!" Takane snapped, running forward as another student slipped through the metal doors. "What do you think you're doing?! That's for disability resources only!"

_"Hey, you little jinx, wake up."_

"Takene, it's not-"

"No! It's not okay!" Her fist banged on the elevator doors, too late to stop them from closing. She clicked the button on the side a couple times to call back the elevator, but the old piece of machinery refused to open. "That asshole just stole the-"

* * *

><p>"-elevator!"<p>

"...you were dreaming about elevators? I didn't know it was possible for you to even sleep," Shintaro muttered, checking the forums for updates on another screen, having left one empty to give her some semblance of peace. "You're always burning up the screen in the early hours of the morning."

* * *

><p><em>Author's Notes<em>

Huzzah.


	2. Chapter 2

**Requited Love**

"-elevator!"

"...you were dreaming about elevators? I didn't know it was possible for you to even sleep," Shintaro muttered, checking the forums for updates on another screen, having left one empty to give her some semblance of peace. "You're always burning up the screen in the early hours of the morning."

Ene's face flushed red then paled then her eyes went wide, flipping through those emotions in a short span of frames.

"You mean I slept through the morning and you waking up and I missed everything?!" she screeched, waving her arms wildly over the list of messages Shintaro was perusing. "That's not supposed to happen!"

"Guh!" She dramatically swooned back to the bottom of the screen, and her image appeared over his wall, covering the screen in evident distress. "I hate sleep!"

"...hey." Shintaro sipped at his soda, grimacing at how it had gone flat overnight. "I sleep every night, you know."

"But Master is lazy and always sleeps until noon. Technically Master doesn't sleep at night, just morning."

The ignoring started. Oooo, she'd stepped on a nerve there. She rolled around, lounging on the large screen, bouncing one leg. "You know, they're gonna come looking for you. They did say they'd have something for Master to do. They're gonna get annoyed if you don't go meet them."

He pushed his chair away from the desk, getting up and dragging his feet.

"Wow, are you really going to get ready? Master, I'm so prou-"

Shintaro ducked into the bathroom, grabbing a pair of clothes on his way. He wasn't even going to listen to her while he dressed. What a cop-out.

"Your sister knows where you live!" she called to him, cranking up the volume so he'd hear her. "I'll send them your address! They'll come and drag you kicking and screaming to somewhere I won't give you the map of!"

Shintaro poked his head out of the bathroom, toothbrush in hand, to retort, "I have a song to finish writing!" And gone again.

"OOOOOO! Your songs never get a good rep!" she hollered back, a smirk clear across her features. "The only reason they get views at all is because you always advertise them on your precious forums!"

No response. As expected.

"Maybe I should install parental controls on your computer! Get you to cut that porn habit of yours cold turkey, eh?"

"I swear, I'll delete you once and for all one d-"

"SHINTARO! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU TO TURN DOWN THE VOLUME ON YOUR COMPUTER?"

Shintaro sprinted (more like stumbled) back to his computer, and yanked out the speaker cords as Ene rolled around the screen holding her stomach, laughing. Out of all of their conversations-conveniently-turned-into-threats-and-subsequent-backlashes, Shintaro's mother held the title of champion for most arguments won.

* * *

><p>Seto st himself down at a bench stylized to be an art statement, and pulled out his phone, squinting at the screen to turn up the brightness to see it in the well-lit building. When he managed to comprehend the screen, instead of his apps, there appeared to be a YouTube video pulled up.<p>

He could see the wifi signal in the corner of the screen, but he didn't remember watching anything recently. Maybe Mary had been watching cat videos again. Or Ene wanted him to watch something she'd found, she had jumped on his phone earlier. With that girl, it could have been anything from a cliché vine to a a silly cat in a box. With that in mind, he put in his earbuds, and pressed the triangle in the center. It pulsed, several dots danced in a circle, and a click sounded in his ears.

The scene started on a bus, parked at a bus stop. On schedule, evidently. The last few people filed onto the bus, cramming it to full. A gaggle of girls, their galoshes splashing in the puddles on the pavement, stopped as they arrived at the bus. Closing their umbrellas, they shrieked as the rain pelted them, and scrambled aboard.

Out the windows, it appeared to be a dreary day. A nice neighborhood, all swept clean with brilliant paint jobs, nice buildings, well-taken-care-of hedges and well-placed trees. It was no surprise that all the bus's chivalrous passengers avoided the handicapped seating, the cushioned bench sectioned off by neon yellow markings all over it.

The driver gave a huff as he pulled a lever, the doors closing seconds later. A shout cut through the rain, hitting the camera's microphone. "Stop, wait! Open the doors, we need to get on!"

When the doors opened again, a student stopped, grabbing the rail and stomping a foot on the first step. Her long bangs sticking to her face, she waited to board, panting, leveling a glare at the driver.

"Get on," the driver snapped. "You're holding up the bus, I have other stops to get to." Still, she didn't move, and a few passengers peered around their seats and other obstacles to quirk an annoyed eyebrow at the commotion.

After a long, tense moment, Seto discovered why she made the bus wait. A taller boy slowed from a light speedwalk as he came into the screen, holding an umbrella and looking miserable. "Takane, you didn't have to," he said, his voice soft and hard to pick out from the rain.

She shot him a scowl as if offended, and mumbled something in a huff. The boy, another student, quickly boarded the bus, and Seto sucked in a breath as he sat at the handicapped seat, shoving the umbrella closed. Unknown to the student, the ire of the entire bus turned to focus on him.

The girl, Takane, finally dashed onto the bus, and plopped herself down next to the boy. Seto's eyes widened. This was just asking for trouble.

For a few minutes, Seto watched the tension simmer. The bus started moving, and the two students talked quietly, the microphone only catching snippets of comprehensible dialogue. The boy's name was Haruka, he figured out that much, and it seemed like they were chatting about complaints about classes and little funny points of the day.

It turned into a time bomb for someone to explode. And someone did.

"Hey, kids! Those are for the elderly!"

When one person broke the dam, others invited themselves through, chiming in.

"Yeah, some people actually need those seats!"

"What would your parents think?"

"Just wait until you have arthritis and a couple of spoiled teens are taking those seats!"

Haruka's teeth clenched, and his eyes teared up a bit, his hands clenched tight on the dripping umbrella. He took a breath, and mustered up the courage to start to rise, an apology on his lips.

"I'm sor-"

"Don't bother," Takane said loudly, putting a hand on his arm and pulling him back down. "It's none of their business. We don't have to explain ourselves to them."

The other passengers' seats were a tall step higher than theirs, and they loomed over the teens with scowls and judging glares. The two, suddenly appearing like tiny, petulant children, trembled under the heavy mood.

Seto frowned, confused. Why didn't they just stand and hang onto the poles? Keep a hand on the back of a seat for balance? Even he could see that if they continued to just sit there, the other passengers would turn threatening.

What did they hope to gain? What was there to prove?

Why did Ene think this was important to show him?

Takane turned her head up, looking directly at the camera, and the video ended, leaving him lost as to if the students were attacked further or not. He turned his phone vertical again, watching the video minimize back into the YouTube screen. Seto poked and prodded the screen, but it offered no title or information on who posted it, and when he poked for a description, the screen went black. The screen blinked back to his home screen, and he sighed. The video had crashed the app.

Seto tapped open the app again, but it opened to the YouTube home page instead of the last-played video. Strange, but he didn't think much on it.

His attention was taken by the fluff of white hair as soft as cotton candy emerging from the restrooms. Seto smiled, waving a hand to attract Mary's attention, stowing away the phone in his pocket. He didn't question Ene's disappearance, assuming she had hopped back onto Shintaro's phone through the wireless.

The video would be a mystery for another day.

* * *

><p><em>Author's Notes<em>

Takane has Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), also called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), the main symptom of which is fatigue. With chronic fatigue, you often find yourself falling asleep in the oddest of places and positions, even when you're engaged in an interesting activity, and even large amounts of sleep are not restorative. Every single day feels like you've pulled an all-nighter. Incurable, not life-threatening. No official treatment. There is next to no funding for research into this disease.

This is my NaNoWriMo project this year.


	3. Memories

Warnings: menstruation mention, ableist characters.

* * *

><p><strong>Requited Love<strong>

Takane frowned at the security camera above the driver's seat, seeing the red light and seeing a familiar face beyond it.

"Seto?" she asked, and her eyes widened. "Wha..."

She looked beside her, where she technically should have been processing visual stimuli and reading it as code, and to Haruka, the visual stimuli that stayed impossibly vivid and real. Those cute spots on the side of his face, his eyes that shimmered with tears in that moment, his quivering lip. He noticed her staring, and squeezed her hand as he turned his attention to her in return.

She expected to find herself in her nest of code, reading electrical signals and sending out code and completed processes to function. Seto was supposed to be read as lines and lines and lines and lines of numbers and symbols, his dark green jumpsuit a corresponding line of numbers. She hadn't had memories so clear and _alive_ since being human.

With the interruption of real-life, she waited for the memory to break and fade into nothing but fragments of code, real life confronting her with the freedom of being part of microchips and electrical signals.

Haruka's voice was quiet, raspy from the tears threatening to escape. "Who's Seto?"

Memories didn't change.

"He- he's a friend, kinda shy, always attached to this one girl," the words poured out in explanation, Takane rambling, almost testing to see if that had been a fluke, if the memory still had time to fall apart at her words. "He wears this green jumpsuit - his brother calls him a big frog."

Haruka seemed to be confused at first-then he smiled. "You don't often talk about your friends outside school," he commented, a hint of amazement to his voice. "He must be nice. Who's the other girl?"

Takane's mind raced. She was floundering, feeling as if the world was cracking underneath her as it rushed to her that this might not be as simple as replaying a memory. "Her name's Mary," she answered, just wanting to talk to Haruka. Haruka, who was actually inches away from her. Haruka, whose arm she still had a hand on. "I always see her wearing a dress, and she has this big poof of white hair. She's even more shy than Seto, and it's like she's the princess and he's her knight in shining armor."

"They sound like an adorable couple," Haruka commented, awed. In that moment, talking to each other, the disgruntled crowd didn't seem so overpowering.

Takane glanced out the window, smiling, glad this was relaxing him from the near-confrontation. From what she remembered, on this day they'd been kicked off at the next stop, the majority of passengers' opinions winning over the fact that the driver saw them almost every day taking those same seats. They'd walked home, crashing at Haruka's place since it was closest.

That entire 'meeting the parents' fiasco had been a disaster. The power went out, and Haruka had suggested she stay for dinner and a sleepover. Mentions about her being famous at a zombie game had turned dinner conversation sour, Haruka's mother being squeamish and very disapproving of horror games. Her body had decided to remind her of her female biology that night, and she'd bled on the guest bedroom mattress. That morning had been awkward and even the men of the house knew the situation before she learned Haruka's mother had a hysterectomy and hadn't had a period in early two decades. She almost blushed bright red as she realized she'd have to endure that horrible embarrassment all again.

Not this time. No, that wouldn't happen this time, she promised. She'd stand her ground, and they'd be dropped off at their usual spot.

"They're a bit younger than us," she kept talking, her plan cementing in her mind. "Mary is really old-fashioned, and sews a lot of her own clothes."

"I think," he noted, his eyes focused on her. Only her. "If I could sew, I'd make you something beautiful to wear."

Her face must have been beet red in that moment. "That's- that's stupid!" She huffed, and although romantic of him, her mind insisted it impractical. She would spend the entire time worried about messing it up, and likely be impossible to sleep comfortably in with all her napping. "I'd never wear a dress like that! Wait-are you saying I need to dress in girly shit?"

Haruka muffled a chuckle, a hand pressing against his chest. "Okay, so what if I made you a scarf or sweater?"

"I think that's crochet and knitting, dumbass."

Haruka opened his mouth to reply, but both were jarred by the bus slowing to a stop, and the doors swung open at an unassuming corner of the street. Takane felt her heart leap to her throat. This was it. The driver was about to turn around to them, a tired look on his face, and say-

"Sorry, kids, but you're going to have to get off here."

"What?" Haruka gasped, the smile vanishing.

"But why?" the words slipped from Takane's mouth, reciting the memory. "We always sit here."

"The other passengers don't appreciate your behavior, taking the handicapped seating."

In hindsight she now had, she knew he was just trying to get them to safety, away from the murderous intent of the other passengers, most who were older and more able than them. But this time, she wouldn't stand for it. Haruka had caught a cold out in that rain, and she'd embarrassed herself in front of his family all because she'd given in last time.

"We're not leaving."

Memories didn't change.

So she created new ones.

"Takane-"

She didn't ignore the stressed tone to his voice. It gave her more reason to persist. "No," she snapped. "We're not giving up these seats. We need these seats, and anyone who thinks otherwise can shove a cactus dildo up their ass."

The rest of the bus was quiet, conversation stalled in favor of staring down the teens. A girl, maybe a year or two younger than them from seeing her in the hallways, flinched at the obscene language. An older business man, kind of scruffy, spoke sternly to them.

"You need it?" he scoffed. "You're too young to be sick with those kinds of diseases. My mother spent months in a wheelchair before losing the battle to cancer. You should be ashamed of yourselves."

The 'I know a guy' card. Takane grit her teeth. How could people bring in their relatives like weapons to beat people down and think that was okay?

"We're fucking disabled, bastard." She felt on the verge of screaming or crying, she didn't know which. She turned in her seat to glare at him, refusing to give in to his taunts and stand. "My damn knees are killing me enough without standing on a moving bus-" Fudging the truth, but her real reason didn't have the same bang to it. She avoided saying anything directly about any of their conditions, stubbornly keeping that private. "-and my friend will dislocate his hip again if you make him walk all the way home!"

The man had the nerve to claim, "I don't believe you. You're too young to know pain."

Takane bristled, seeing red, and shouted, "Yeah? Where's your doctor's degree, huh? Where'd you go to medical school? I'd like to see you tell that to our doctors, you shitlord!"

A sweaty palm grabbed her arm.

"Takane, stop."

Takane blinked through her anger, glancing back at Haruka. She watched as he stood up, and numbly followed him off the bus, no words exchanged between them. She saw the wince as he stepped onto the pavement. She glanced back to the bus as he opened the umbrella, and almost flinched at the hatred emanating from the glares through the windows. "Haruka..." she started, but didn't know what to say.

Memories didn't change.

"You went too far, Takane."

This time, she did flinch. She folded her hands behind her, clenching her bag and turning her gaze to the ground. The umbrella was moved to shelter her, Haruka stepping beside her. She didn't want to see his disapproving frown.

"While I appreciate that you tried to keep us from getting kicked off the bus, I don't like other people talking about my illness like that."

Shit.

She stepped over that rule of chronic illness: Don't out another sickie.

"Aren't you tired of it?" she demanded, feeling herself shake from the sheer anger bubbling inside her. "_You don't look sick, you're too young!_ It drives me up the fucking wall hearing it all the damn time!"

Haruka shook his head, refusing to press the discussion. "That could have been dangerous," he continued, his tone steady. "Neither of us could take any kind of physical confrontation. If that had escalated any more, we'd have ended up in a flare. C'mon."

Takane had no protest to them moving away from the edge of road to against a tree. It didn't provide much shelter, and the bark was soggy, but it was something to lean on, and both of them needed that. She said nothing for a while, and neither did he.

Looking out from their little haven, warmth between their bodies, the dull patter against the plastic, water droplets streaking down their faces. The rain didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon, the sky an unending sea of deep grey. She mumbled an apology, barely hearing herself over the rhythmic beat of nature's tears.

"It's okay." She should have expected that. He always did forgive too easily. "I was the one who wanted to catch this bus instead of waiting another half hour, anyway. Just...don't talk over me like that."

Takane nodded. "They were a bunch of ableist bastards, anyway."

She heard a content sigh from him, but her eyes had stuck on the road, at the passing cars. Dry and toasty fuckers, going home after a long day. Too bad they only ran the taxis through the big cities... That was it! "Wait here," she ordered.

Without giving him a chance to question her, she stomped over with a purpose to the edge of the sidewalk, and stuck her thumb out. She almost grinned at her genius idea - no embarrassing sleepover tonight! - but the image of how stupid she must have looked stopped her.

"T-Takane?" Haruka blinked at her. "Did I say something wrong? Are you going to leave me alone out here?"

Takane scowled. "No, you idiot! Of course I'm not abandoning you. I'm getting us a ride."

"...we're going to hitchhike? It's not that far from my house, really."

Far enough for him to catch a cold and start complaining after five minutes. "No." She stood firm. "We're getting a ride. I don't care if I have to stand out here for an hour, I'm not putting up with this rain."

"Wow, Takane's amazing!" She grimaced, knowing he had some sort of shiny fanboy expression on his face. "So kind! But, you know we could always call someone to come pick us up."

What.

"What?!" Her words echoed her thoughts, and she sprinted back over to him. "You mean you had your phone on you this whole time?"

Haruka hadn't suggested this last time. There was still a chance!

"...I thought you had your phone. Mine broke last week, remember?"

She deflated. There went her hopes for redemption.

"Right..." She mumbled. "I don't have mine either. I left it at home." That's right; from this experience, she'd learned a valuable lesson in always having her phone on her.

"We could find a payphone." Hallelujah!

"...where the hell are we supposed to find a payphone?"

And that brought no solution to their predicament.

Takane returned to her post, resolutely ignoring how ridiculous it was, although watching every car pass them by with hardly a glance...was disheartening, to say the least. Humiliating at worst.

When a smallish white car slowed beside them, she almost couldn't believe it. Her thumb lowered and Haruka looked up. The window on the passenger side rolled down, and Momo Kisaragi's smiling face greeted them. "Do you need a ride? Hop in!"

"M-Momo?" Takane choked, her master's baby sister being the last person she expected to see in this dream. She wasted no time jumping in the backseat, scooting over so Haruka could get in beside her. They had some trouble with the umbrella, and Takane got her face splattered with more water, not that it made much difference after standing without it with her thumb out like a hobo.

"Idol Momo Kisaragi, at your service!" Momo turned around in her seat to flash them a smile and peace sign, and Takane barely blinked at her eyes switching to red. Her power enraptured Haruka, anyway.

"An idol...Takane! This is the best day of our lives, meeting a celebrity! Can we get an autograph?"

"No!" Takane burst in, getting frowns and stares turned her way. "I- I mean, we just want to get home, we don't want to waste Momo's- I mean Kisaragi-san's time."

It took a moment, then Haruka smiled at her, and addressed Momo, "She's right, I'm sorry. There was a mishap with the bus, and we need a ride home. Thanks so much for this."

"No problem," Momo said, relieved they gave up the hunt for an autograph. "Don't tell anyone, but I'm not a fan of giving autographs. It's so much work to get it just right."

Half an hour, more like. Her fried mind started making more connections-really, she'd be in hysterics about this if she wasn't too tired for that. It was only logical that they'd meet up with Momo like this. Momo was someone she knew. her mind wasn't likely to insert a total stranger into her dreams, or someone she knew to be busy or elsewhere.

"So, where are you headed? My chauffeur will take us wherever you need to go."

Takane readily gave up her address, a place she checked up on periodically to monitor her grandmother, who continued to live after her granddaughter had died that hot day. When she heard nothing from Haruka, she turned to him, and groaned at his expression.

"...you forgot your address, didn't you?"

His sheepish smile was enough of an answer for her. She waved off Momo's awkward grimace with, "He's scatterbrained. We'll just go to my house." With a grin, she suggested to Haruka, "Maybe we could even have a sleepover. The guest room is a bit dusty, but I think you'll like my grandmother's cooking."

Haruka's face lit up at the suggestion of food, but he hesitated. "I'd better call my parents once I get to your place. And," his voice quieted, and she leaned closer to hear him, "-if it's okay, do you think I could borrow some supplements? I'm on a strict regime."

Takane nodded. Ach. She'd forgotten that one part. By dragging him to her house instead, she was dragging him away from all his tablets and pills. They'd both been through hundreds of treatments, so she just had to remember where she kept those old bottles. They could figure something out. It wasn't like he'd die from missing a dose or two, but she worried anyway.

* * *

><p><em>Author's Notes<em>

I have 45 pages of this waiting to be revised and edited. This is the end of page 9. I'm so glad I finally got this chapter sorted out! I was convinced I was missing a scene, and that this one wasn't finished.


End file.
